Saks & Violins

Bed-and-Breakfast Mysteries #22

by Mary Daheim

When world-famous musician Dolph Kluger drops dead of rhubarb poisoning during a reception at the Hillside Manor B&B, proprietor Judith McMonigle Flynn launches her own investigation to uncover a killer.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Cozy, Fiction, Mystery Thriller

495 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Mary Rene Richardson Daheim was an American writer of romance and mystery novels.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Judith has some crazy guests but this group took the cake! It was tricky trying to keep track of everyone but I overall enjoyed the story even if Judith and joe didn’t quite seem like themselves.

[☺Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay mystery . . . but what is up with all of Judith's "artificial hip" blather? I thought people had hip replacement surgery so they could improve their mobility, their strength, and be relatively pain-free. (That is one problem with reading series' books out-of-order. The flow and continuity is disrupted.)

[VJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you haven't read this series from the beginning, stop. Put this book down. Go get the first book and read them in order. Trust me. If you pick up this series in the middle like I did at first, you will probably not enjoy it. You really need to "grow" with these characters or you might just hate them. It took a couple books to hit the stride, but by book 3, I fell in love with them.

I'm in the middle right now, but wanted to stop to giggle about the reference to Abbot and Costello's "Who's On First" comedy routine. Nearly 100 years after it was first performed, that skit still can crack me up every time someone mentions it!

This wasn't one of the good ones. The wrap up was anti-climatic. Oh, well. On to the next!

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't sure whether to go for 2 1/2 stars or 3l I'm letting the positive aspects of the book outweigh the negatives.

I am a huge fan of the Alpine series, and I suppose every time I read one of her B&B novels, I have high hopes. Most of the time, those hopes are unrealized.

In this one, there is an interesting mystery with no shortage of suspects. There's a lot of intricacy in the interweavings of a couple of story lines. So far so good. Lots of positives in the story, how it is told, and how it comes together in the end.

The repartee between Judith and cousin Renie is downright annoying at times. It distracts sometimes from the story line. And come on, a 911 dispatcher that gives Judith grief! Let's tone down some of our more outlandish characters. That's the negative.

But the story line was really good, so 3 stars it is.

[Anita · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book to be a bit boring. there were too many characters all related to one another. Most were mentally unstable. On other reviews it mentions that you should not attempt this series out of order. maybe that would have helped. I will try another by this author in case it was just this one that wasn't that good. I chose this book because i owned it and hadn't read it. I filed it in my reading challenges under 52 books in 52 weeks 2024 challenge read a book with instraments on the cover.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

The craziest bed and breakfast guests Judith has ever had! She is fed up with the crazy guests and wants them gone but not as bodies carried out. Judith can not help wanting to know why they are the way they are and as she looks deeper (you know she can't help it) more twists and turns turn up to confuse her even more.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a visit with friends

A visit to Hillside Manor and it’s quirky characters is like a visit home for me. Love Judith and her relatives and neighbours, and really appreciate the author’s sense of humour.
I even visited Seattle with the main purpose of putting the series in context.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok better than some of her books

[Johnna · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun bed and breakfast series. this title was a music related murder and really good

[L.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent. More humorous but still very dry.

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Formulaic. I didn't really care "who done it."

[Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

enjoyed this book and the series. Like the solution wrap up.

[Julia Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy fun read

[Flora Warfel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read, convoluted plot.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Julia is having neighbor problems and she hopes he won't turn up dead.

[Drebbles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Money is tight for Judith McGonigle Flynn and her cousin Renie. Judith's Bed and Breakfast isn't attracting as many customers as it used to and Renie isn't getting any offers for her graphic design work and is seriously in debt. Judith is also dealing with Rudi, a neighbor who likes to practice his violin at all hours of the night. To top it all off, Judith's latest guests are an odd bunch and she's not too happy when one of them is murdered. Add in Renie's missing credit cards and Rudi's missing violin bow and Judith and Renie are knee deep in murder and mayhem - yet again.

"Saks and Violins" is an okay entry in Mary Daheim's Bed and Breakfast cozy mystery series. All of the characters that make the series so enjoyable - Judith, Renie, Judith's husband Joe, and her mother Gertrude - are in this book. The gentle sense of humor in the series is also in this book. But this book seems over the top, even for this series. Judith's neighbor Arlene is a perfect example. She's always been nosy, but she takes it to a new level in this book with her probing. Renie's worrying about her debts never quite worked for me as she was still wearing $2,000 outfits. The reaction of the 911 operator was no doubt meant to be funny but struck me as unprofessional instead. Judith's worrying over her artificial hip wore thin quickly - isn't the point of getting a new hip that one walks better with it? As for the mystery elements, for me the biggest problem was that there were too many characters and I got confused as to who was who and how they were related to each other. However, the mystery itself is well plotted, with plenty of suspects and red herrings and readers will have a hard time figuring out whodunit.

"Saks and Violins" is an okay cozy mystery.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I hear once more about Judith's hip replacement I think I'll shriek! The surgeons should be talking to MS Daheim about her portrayal of the results of their work. Her weakness and pain is not the way I hear it and my Mother, at about the same age, had a replacement after several years of extreme pain and never complained of difficulties from it. Anyway - the extreme complexities of the musical family was difficult to follow. I almost needed to draw up a family tree. Judith's mother drives me up the wall, as does Arlene from next door. All that being so, why do I enjoy these? Answer, I don't know, except that the pacing, events, revelations and ancillary people are intriguing and there are enough funny bits that I'm kept reading. I think MS Daheim needs to read up on fox hunting a little more, though, unless the eastern states have a unique form of that activity. I was pleased to see the pushy police officer was hoist with her own petard. That was satisfying. A fun read.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rudi, a violinist, and his piano-teaching girlfriend, rent a house near Hillside Manor, and antagonize all the neighbors. In an effort to be friendly, Judith Flynn lets Rudi hold a party for a few guests--including three of the bed and breakfast visitors--in her parlor. When one of the guests faints, Judith is guiltily relieved that it's nothing more serious, but a more serious problem is coming. Judith is, unusually, encouraged to investigate by one of the police officers on the case, but the suspects are resistant to her usual charm, and she finds it hard going to get the information she needs.

[Roberta · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's silly. I'm on page 145 of 341 and I'm not going to finish it. It isn't one big thing -- it's lots of little things. Several of the characters were just too stupid and annoying. The toxicology report comes back from the lab over night. Frozen sirloin is being served as beef Stroganoff apparently in less than an hour. A stranger walks in and sprains an ankle, the main character asks "Can I get you anything?" and, when he answers "Scrambled eggs" she just goes straight out to the kitchen and starts whipping him up a plate of scrambled eggs. Huh?

[Dwayne Wojtowicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Daheim is an artist at most. Her pen is her paint brush; her words are her pictures.

Her characters come alive the moment you start reading "Saks & Violins." I had a rough time in the middle, but only to find out that I accidentally skipped two pages (somehow they got stuck together). After figuring out that snafu, her story continued without any flaw.

The plot was a development beyond its kind. The characters, even though has their own little flaws, reminded me of some of my family members.

Mary Daheim is an outstanding author.

[Elizabeth/Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of many in the cozy Bed and Breakfast mystery series. Judith and Renie are like old familiar friends to me by now. It's best to start at the beginning of the series, but each book has explanation of the heroine's (Judith's) background. Good if you want something light and fast, and if you are a mystery lover. But like I said in the beginning, just one of many in the series, and nothing special.

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

What did I learn from this book? I learned that even the best cozy author ocassionally writes a loser. I could barely get through this one. There were so many characters and they were all so boring. If it weren't for Judith's cousin Rennie's droll sense of humor, I wouldn't have given this book even two stars

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just ok...like a place-filler from Daheim before the next book. The mystery was solved a little too abruptly, and there were a few too many characters who didn't really go anywhere...hey detective with the allergies, did you do anything besides sneeze? Still, Judith and Renie are a treat as usual and Renie's ash reading skills alone make the book worth picking up.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not even close to her other books the ending was vague and a disappointment. I hope her next book returns to the quality of the others.

[Missi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bad character development, plot jumps around...obviously you need to read ALL the books before this one to have a clue...not what I'd expect from a mystery novel.

[Sherry Beaubriand]

Not my favorite book-thought it would be better than it was.

[Pat Roseman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this is actually the last one I read.

[Faith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the characters were just unlike-able but love Judith and Renie enough that I kept reading. Not one of my favorites in this series but a decent read if you're already into it.

[Elliedakota · Rating 3 out of 5]

contrived

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this Mary Daheim book. As usual it's an easy read (although I found this particular book a tad more tedious).